Guinevere and her party battled against the razor-badger outside their army’s camp. Each hair of its fur stood straight up. And hummed, making it sound like an angry hornet’s nest. Guinevere was at the front, her master swordsmanship letting her dodge, duck, and perry its claws as she reposted and struck her own blows. Behind her Haldros, her party’s ranged attackers opened mini portals in the sky, and meteors rained down, pelting the badger with burning stone shrapnel.
Kira healed Guinevere’s wounds as fast as they appeared. Guinevere was not her party’s tank; that role belonged to Regald, a burly human in full plate who carried a massive tower shield. However, Guinevere was so ferocious, and her attacks were more damaging than her other party members that they kept returning their focus to her. The only thing that saved her was her abilities, Grace-of-the-Fey and Battle Insight which let her read her opponent’s attacks and respond in time to avoid and counterattack.
Guinevere dodged another swipe of the razor-badger’s claws, then twisted into a lunge burying her icy rapier hilt deep into the badger’s skull. It spasmed then collapsed, and Guinevere stepped back.
“Well, that’s that,” Guinevere said as the notifications hit her.
15 rank points gained split between contributing attackers.
She frowned; with her party member’s contributions and the creature’s low rank, her progress was slow.
“I can’t protect you, my lady, if you keep drawing agro like that,” Regald said.
“I was focused on killing it,” Guinevere responded. “Besides, we were doing fine; Edrick and I were dealing enough damage to keep it off balance.
Edrick, her party’s rogue, shook his head. “You’re supposed to position it for me to get in my backstabs. You just held it there, and I could barely get in any damage.”
“We wone which is what is important,” Guinevere said.
“But when we go up against something our own rank, we won’t be able to do that,” Kira said. “We’re your party, Lady Guinevere. You need to let us do our jobs and support you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Guinevere said, biting back the unsaid words that she didn’t need support. “Any word from Jamis and Felecia?”
“Heard they found one gifted bear,” Regald said. “Jamis used his divine ability on it, and they’re on the lookout for a female now. Then they can get started on breeding their army.”
“I’d still like to just sneak in and assassinate the Warlord,” Guinevere said. “Edrick could come and help, and any of the other champions or gifted we have who specialize in stealth.”
Edrick frowned at her. “I understand you have several stealth abilities, my lady, but one does not just sneak into a fortress where the enemy is aware of you. It would be suicide; what kind of idiot just waltz into a fortress to try and challenge their leader?”
“I wasn’t going to challenge him,” Guinevere said, rolling her eyes.
“Assassination is the way of the Chaos Spawn,” Kira said. “But I understand your desire; perhaps we should give it more thought.”
“Thank you,” Guinevere said.
“We couldn’t let anyone else know about it,” Kira continued. “Your father would kill us if he knew we were even contemplating it.”
“That’s fine,” Guinevere said eagerly. “I wouldn’t want to get any of you in trouble; I could go over the wall invisible, then find him and end this in one stroke.”
“You are even better at infiltration than me,” Edrick admitted looking at Kira, the two having an unspoken conversation.
They were interrupted when a rider came into camp bleeding; one arm severed as he barely held onto consciousness. Guinevere and her party rushed over; Kira used her abilities to heal the man and stop the bleeding, and Guinevere stopped him from just falling off his horse.
“What happened?” Guinevere asked.
“The Warlord,” the rider gasped. “My party was keeping watch on the walls when a group of people came up behind us. There were three women and a large man in plate armor. When I analyzed him, I saw he was the Warlord. We tried to stop him, but he cut through us like paper then they made it into the fortress.”
“They were going towards the fortress?” Guinevere asked, frowning. “How? We haven’t seen anyone leave the fortress the entire time we’ve been here.”
“I don’t know, my lady,” the scout admitted.
“This is troubling,” Guinevere said, rising. “As soon as the champions return, we need to gather and discuss this. I have a feeling we are missing something, and the Warlord is up to his tricks.”
---
My father slammed the door shut, the walls of our apartment rattling, the picture hanging on the wall fell off again, and I winced as I heard its frame clatter on the ground.
“Ellen!” my father shouted.
I ducked behind the couch to avoid him seeing me pulling my stuffed monkey with me hugging it to my chest.
“Ellen!” my father shouted again, the fury rising in his voice.
“Yes?” Mom said, running into the room, a look of desperate concern on her face.
“Why is our bank account in the negative?” my father asked.
“I went to get groceries,” mom began. “You get paid every Friday. I thought there was enough….”
“Of course, there wasn’t enough!” My dad snarled. “I was sick last week, and the snow kept me from working the other two days. I only had ten hours last week. Now we’re in the negative, and the bank fees are going to start coming in.”
“I’m sorry, Arthur….” mom began.
The smack made me wince and shrink back.
“Don’t give me that,” Arthur hissed. “You got fired from your job last week because of your stupid kid.”
“Mordred was sick. I had to stay at home and take care of him,” mom protested.
“Then he got me sick, and now I don’t have money to pay for gas to get to work!” Arthur swore, and his foot slammed into the wall punching a hole through the drywall.
I skidded back, and my father’s eyes snapped to me, caught by the rapid movement. “You’re always getting sick Mordred and spreading it around to the rest of us. Why do you have to be so weak?”
--
I awoke from the memory and felt something wrapped around my throat. The rage inside me exploded and I grabbed at the thing, ripping it off, feeling patches of skin go with it and hot blood flow down from my skin.
Nightmare Eater; Gifted- monster/lesser-demon, Mortal, Rank: 16
I ripped the demon in half-black ichor spewing everywhere.
4 rank points were gained.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 196 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
I still wanted to smash something to kill and not stop killing. I didn’t feel pain from that memory, not anymore. The emotional heartbreak had long been replaced with a deep and simmering anger ready to boil out at the slightest provocation.
Why do you have so much anger? The voidling asked, her voice breaking into my muddled rage.
“I have every reason to feel the anger I do!” I snarled at her.
But why? The voidling asked. I don’t understand why your kind feels the things you feel; I know the cause, but I don’t understand your reasoning.
“I’m not the best person to ask about a typical person’s emotional reasoning,” I said with a dark laugh as I slowly reined in my fury.
Hmmm, the voidling hummed. If I could figure out why your kind feels things, it would make it much easier to farm you.
“And your back to being one hundred percent creepy,” I said. “If you can’t find a way to make yourself useful, at least keep your comments to yourself.”
I’m very useful! The voidling protested.
“Really? Name one thing that you do for me,” I said dryly, approaching the crevice opening.
I let you know the emotional states of those around you, she said proudly.
“Great, except I don’t care about that. People’s feelings are their own business, and they can keep it to themselves as far as I care.”
Your not a very nice person, the voidling said, and I got the mental impression of a pout.
“Just figuring that out?” I asked as I began to ascend the crevice up into its dark recesses.
My progenitors helped you out. I figured you would be more grateful, she said.
“They helped you; they put a parasite inside me so you could find food sources. Any benefit I received is only a byproduct of you being sustained.”
You could still be more grateful, she said sullenly. You’re nicer to Karnen than you are to me.
“Karnen is a vengeful prick who entered into my spirit to avoid death; I don’t want him there either, but I understand what he is. I’m still not clear on what it is your eldritch ass is or your purpose for being here other than to somehow feed on the emotions of others.”
I was scaling the cliff quickly as the voidling and I bickered back and forth.
I’m not an it! The voidling hissed.
“Oh really,” I said. “Then what’s your name.”
There was a brief pause.
Voidra, she said.
“You just came up with that on the spot, didn’t you,” I accused.
No, she denied it, but her tone wasn’t at all convincing.
“Whatever, I don’t actually care,” I said. “At least it will make it easier to refer to you in my thoughts.”
Voidra went silent, apparently done talking to me for now, and I was left in silence. I continued my climb, finally arriving in a massive cavern. Muck squished underfoot, and the foul smell of shit filled the air. I could hear movement and wingbeats ahead and looked up. I could see everything in shades of grey in the darkness. Thousands of bats moved across the ceiling, but they weren’t the tiny mouse or rat-sized versions from my world. These were as large as greyhounds at a minimum, with some as large as a massif.
Screamer Bat; Gifted- beast/bat, Mortal, Rank: 22
I continued to see gifted after gifted among them though I hadn’t spotted one that wasn’t Mortal rank yet. However, there were hundreds of gifted among them, at least a quarter of them popping up as gifted when I analyzed them.
A bat dropped down and swooped at me, claws extended. I ducked and retaliated with a swipe of my club. The bat spun as my attack snapped its left wing and ripped open the membrane of its wing. It let out a shriek, and all movement from above froze. Not a sound could be heard then as one of the bats began screaming. I could only vaguely hear the sound, thanks to my increased Perception. The sound waves actually caused the liquid shit I was calf-deep in to ripple from the impact. I could feel the sound attacks hit me, and I didn’t like it. The attack bypassed my toughened skin, and I felt my organs stir up, and my bones felt like they were developing fractures with every second.
I responded with violence. Stone spearheads shot out, and bats began dropping by the dozens as their flying forms were knocked and speared from the air. I moved about on the ground finishing any creature that wasn’t killed from the first attack.
6 rank points gained.
24 rank points total gained from various kills.
I barely got any rank points from these creatures. Since they were a lower ranking than me, I got only a quarter of their rank points instead of half.
Black Rage and Magma Heart(s) activated with each melee strike and kill. I could see my veins glowing through the murky haze surrounding me. I could only imagine I resembled some hellish ghost, but whatever my appearance, the bat colony was not dissuaded.
19 rank points total gained from various kills.
Bats hit me full force in suicide runs; their bodies hit me full force, knocking me into the muck only to have me savage their bodies and leave their corpses in the fetid shit. They kept attacking and dying in ones, twos, and threes.
45 rank points total gained from various kills.
A bat grabbed me by my shoulders and flung me up into the air. I went willingly, using the time to make some attacks against the bats who had been unwilling to come down and meet me on the ground. Bat’s plummeted down as I shattered wing bones or ripped open the membrane of their wings.
27 rank points gained from various kills.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 234 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Ability gained, Curse Call.
The bats kept attacking like that until about a quarter of their number was gone. Then a sound so high pitched only the shattering of stalagmites and the thrumming in my bones made me aware of it. The bats scattered in all directions, and a light descended down from the heights of the cavern. A massive bat swooped into the cavern, its fur a spectral blue and glowing with ethereal light.
Farsool the Ghost; Gift- beast/spectral-bat, Veteran, Rank: 234
It stopped mid-air, and I was launched out of the much and flung through the air as its sonic attack hit me. I teleported next to it, my clubs lashing out, but Farsool turned translucent, and my attacks passed through its form. Its claws hit me, and I bit back a scream as agony coursed through me.
Warning! You have taken Soul damage which you are extremely susceptible to due to your previous Soul Damage.
I activated Wrathful Meditation, and all feeling stopped. I snapped back into the fight, and the bat seemed surprised that I was able to attack him. Apparently, it had been counting on incapacitating me with pain, but that wasn’t going to happen. I got a better look at the spectral bat now that I was close to it. It had two sets of bright beady eyes, each moving independently of each other tracking my flying spearheads. The bat flew between them, its large size still somehow able to dodge most of my projectiles.
The bat’s eyes met mine, and I felt something overcome me freezing me in place. The bat lunged forward, long fangs going for my throat; I broke free of the paralysis at the last second and blocked it with my forearm. The bat began shaking me by my arm but scissored my legs around its neck and began to squeeze. Like Hercules with the nemean lion, I was incredibly strong, and I could feel its throat constrict. The bat began thrashing around in panic, but I held onto my other hand, slamming my club into its skull.
It managed to twist its neck enough to bury its fangs into my side, but I couldn’t feel the injury, and my attempts to crush its windpipe didn’t let up. The bat turned incorporeal again, but even this didn’t make me lose contact with it, and I transitioned with it and continued to hold onto it as we were both in our respective phantom-like forms. Finally, the duration of its form ended, and we both returned to the physical world. I kept strangling the bat, and at last, it shuddered and stopped moving.
I didn’t let go until I finally got the prompt from the system.
117 rank points gained.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 235 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
Ability gained, Terrifying Cry (Rank 1); You emit an ear-piercing shriek that inflicts the Panic condition for 5 seconds on any creature within 50ft who hears it and fails a Spirit check.
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
Cost: 20 mana per use, cooldown 5 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 1.
Another notification flashed in my vision, and I pulled it up. With the death of their leader or patriarch, every other bat had fled and abandoned the cavern.
Your abilities, Terrifying Cry and Curse Call, have synergy with each other. Would you like to sacrifice these abilities to combine them into the ability Helheim’s Scream? Ability will be a more powerful combination of both abilities but will only get the standard amount of additional effects.
Yes / No
Interesting, I hadn’t encountered this before and couldn’t remember if anyone had told me it was possible before. I doubted it was unique to me, but I was curious to try it out. I didn’t even know what Curse Call did. I had turned notifications off in combat, and the system still pinged me, but they only appeared in my vision for a second before disappearing and were always brief.
“Pull up the description for Curse Call,” I told the system.
Curse Call (Rank 1); You unleash a nightmarish sound that reduces the damage dealt by 1 stage for 5 seconds from any creature within 50ft who hears it and fails a Spirit check.
Cost: 20 mana per use, cooldown 5 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 2.
They were both Spirit abilities; maybe that was a requirement for abilities to merge? I pushed the questions from my mind for now. The system was right. The abilities were similar, and I didn’t see a major benefit to keeping them separate, even if it would result in fewer additional effects overall. I pulled the prompt back up and mentally selected yes.
Congratulations! You have merged your abilities Terrifying Cry and Curse Call together and have gained the ability Helheim’s Scream.
Helheim’s Scream (Rank 1); You emit an otherworldly call that inflicts the Panic condition and reduces the damage dealt by 1 stage for 5 seconds from any creature who hears it within 50ft and fails a Spirit check (checks are made separately for each effect of this ability).
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
Cost: 20 mana per use, cooldown 5 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 3.
So, the two effects had just combined into one ability. I didn’t see any changes now, but this did mean I could try to inflict two conditions for the cost it would have taken to just apply one. I wanted to upgrade this ability, but I also didn’t want to do it while I was knee-deep in bat guano.
I looked at the corpse of the Spectral bat and sighed. I set to the grim and disgusting job of skinning it while we were both in the filthy shit. Half an hour later, I waded out of the swamp of feces. The filthy bat pelt was in my storage pouch, but I still smelled worse than a porta-john.
I wiped off the filth of my cleansing cloth. This had the nice effect of removing the muck from every inch of my body and clothing. It also cleared my nose, and the nose blindness I had developed vanished. I gagged as the foul smell wafted up behind me. I climbed higher through the cave system. Finally finding a spot to sit, I collapsed to the ground.
I still had Wrathful Meditation active; I was a little afraid to turn it off and suffer the pain of whatever soul damage I had taken.
“Upgrade Helheim’s Scream to Rank Twenty,” I told the system.
I skipped the first three ranks as per usual.
Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank five; please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.
· The range for your effects is doubled.
· You now inflict the Terror condition with this ability.
· Duration for this ability is increased by 0.5 seconds.
I looked over my three options. The first one was tempting, but I dismissed it for one reason, if my vassals were nearby, they were not immune to this ability which would limit how I could use it. I had no idea what the Terror condition was, but a new condition to add onto it was a tempting choice. The third option increased the duration of this ability slightly; it would likely go up by the same amount every rank, so it would give me an extra seven to eight seconds at rank twenty. I went with the second option. An additional effect was more useful to me than a slight increase in its duration that would go up with each rank anyway.
Helheim’s Scream (Rank 5); You emit an otherworldly call that inflicts the Panic & Terror conditions and reduces the damage dealt by 2 stage for 7 seconds from any creature who hears it within 70ft and fails a Spirit check (checks are made separately for each effect of this ability).
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
*Terror: Target is filled with the need to flee from the source of their fear.
Cost: 30 mana per use, cooldown 7 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 3.
Terror was an interesting effect. I didn’t imagine it would revolutionize how I fought, but if enemies were running away for a bit, it would free me up to focus on the others instead of just avoiding attacks I was spammed with. I skipped the next four notifications.
Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank ten; please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.
· Enemies wounded by you have disadvantage on their Spirit Check against this ability.
· Cooldown for this ability is reduced by 1 second.
· You now inflict the Desolation condition.
The third ability immediately jumped out of me as I read it, and I instantly dismissed the other two choices. They might have been good and had potential, but the name Desolation just spoke to me. I wanted to inflict Desolation on my enemies regardless of what it did.
Helheim’s Scream (Rank 10); You emit an otherworldly call that inflicts the Panic, Terror & Desolation conditions and reduces the damage dealt by 3 stage for 9.5 seconds from any creature who hears it within 90ft and fails a Spirit check (checks are made separately for each effect of this ability).
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
*Terror: Target is filled with the need to flee from the source of their fear.
*Desolation: Target cannot regain mana or stamina for a duration.
Cost: 40 mana per use, cooldown 10 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 3.
The Desolation condition was as good as I could have hoped. As long as I kept hitting my enemies with this, any battle of attrition would be won by me since their abilities would have to pull from a limited mana and stamina pool that wouldn’t refill for as long as they were affected by this ability. I dismissed the next four notifications.
Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank fifteen; please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.
Increases the damage your allies within the area of effect deal by 2 stages.
Allies who make their saves gain immunity to all mental effects and spell for the duration.
You now inflict the Damnation ability with this ability.
Once again, I immediately dismissed the other options. I knew what Damnation did, thanks to my Hell’s Talons. The ability to prevent an enemy from healing was game-changing, and the ability to do so at a distance was even more powerful.
Helheim’s Scream (Rank 15); You emit an otherworldly call that inflicts the Panic, Terror, Desolation & Damnation conditions and reduces the damage dealt by 4 stage for 12 seconds from any creature who hears it within 110ft and fails a Spirit check (checks are made separately for each effect of this ability).
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
*Terror: Target is filled with the need to flee from the source of their fear.
*Desolation: Target cannot regain mana or stamina for duration.
*Damnation: Target cannot receive any healing for duration.
Cost: 40 mana per use, cooldown 15 seconds.
Upgrade this ability to increase the duration, effect and radius of this ability. Each rank increases your Spirit by 3.
I would not inflict five separate effects with this ability if a target failed all their Spirit checks. Even if they only failed one, the sheer number of effects made me confident they would fail at least one. I dismissed the next four notifications to get them to last additional effect for this ability.
Congratulations! You have raised an ability to rank twenty; please pick from one of the three additional effects for your ability from the list below.
· Conditions have a random chance to have double their duration.
· This ability now inflicts Soul damage within a specific range.
· You now inflict the Purgatory condition with this ability.
Looking over additional effects, I was torn. The first was easy to dismiss; I disliked randomness. The second and third options were both tempting Soul damage was a nasty form of damage, but on the other hand, another condition would be interesting. Ultimately my reasoning came down to not liking the name for the last condition that much. Purgatory just didn’t stack up to Desolation or Damnation that well. I wanted to deal damage, and this effect would make this ability a weapon instead of just a debuffer.
Helheim’s Scream (Rank 20, Max Rank); You emit an otherworldly call that inflicts the Panic, Terror, Desolation & Damnation conditions and reduces the damage dealt by 4 stage for 12 seconds from any creature who hears it within 110ft and fails a Spirit check (checks are made separately for each effect of this ability).
Targets within ¼ of the radius of this effect take Moderate soul damage on a failed Spirit check.
Final Rank Bonus: Inflict the Condition Cosmic Dread.
*Panic: Target is unable to distinguish their allies from enemies.
*Terror: Target is filled with the need to flee from the source of their fear.
*Desolation: Target cannot regain mana or stamina for duration.
*Damnation: Target cannot receive any healing for duration.
*Cosmic Dread: Target has difficulty looking at the source of their fear and their mind plays tricks on them showing them their greatest fears.
Cost: 60 mana per use, cooldown 20 seconds.
I was happy with this ability; I couldn’t use it much in battle right now due to its massive mana cost, but for what it could do, I would probably always use it in battle at least once. With my upgrades done, I turned off Wrathful Meditation, bracing myself for the agony. I didn’t feel anything. The lack of pain made me flinch as I just felt the chill of the cave on my skin.
“Pull up my current stats,” I told the system.
Mordred, Champion of Kelesa; Gifted- humanoid/human, Veteran, Rank: 270
Available Rank Points: 1575
Might:
53 (+3) = 56
Mind:
27
Speed:
52 (+22) = 74
Perception:
47
Toughness:
31
Spirit:
121
Endurance:
31
Power:
50
Maximum Stamina:
223
Maximum Mana:
295
Stamina Regen:
47 per second.
Mana Regen:
71 per second
Abilities
Dominion (Rank 30), Telekinesis (Rank 20), Heightened Speed (Rank 20), Foresight (Rank 20), Compress Earth (Rank 20), Bestial Senses: (Rank 20), Phantom Form (Rank 20), Storm Soul (Rank 20), Magma Heart(s) (Rank 20), Troll Hide (Rank 20), Black-rage (Rank 20), Hell’s Talons (Rank 20), Helheim’s Scream (Rank 20)
Blessings:
Blessing of War (Veteran), Blessing of Tadris
Titles
Mark of Cain, Bloody Pugilist, Exorcist, Survivor III, Feral Barbarian, Field Alchemist III, Berserker, Beast Slayer III, War Chief, Venom Resistant III, Keytaro’s Guardian III, Wrathful Meditation, Fireproof III, Superhuman, Bearer of Death, Lightning Resistance, the Fate Breaker.
My mana regeneration was almost twice my stamina regeneration, thanks to my Spirit attribute. Spirit seemed to be the attribute that contributed the most to mana regen. I had a caster’s build. I hadn’t planned on being some sorcerer or mage, buts that’s just how the cards had landed for me.
My work had just begun. I climbed to the top of the cave complex, but it didn’t open up above the mountain like I had hoped. No matter, I had an ability I could use for this. I set to the long and tedious work of sculpting a winding tunnel upwards as I used Compress Earth over and over again.
---
Arthur woke up feeling Lionor’s soft skin against his. His head spun with the hangover, and he lay back, activating his ability Inner Wellspring. The headache began to fade from his head, and he lay back, the soft pillows and furs of the bed swallowing him in their warmth. Lionor stirred at his side; her lips kissed up his neck to his lips.
“You’ll have to slip out soon,” Arthur whispered, running his hand down her back.
“We have some time,” Lionor whispered back.
“If my father knew about you, heed have both our heads,” Arthur said.
“You’re worth the risk,” Lionor said. She propped her elbows on Arthur’s chest as she looked him in the eye. “Do you regret our time together?"
“No,” Arthur said. “But I’m afraid it will be too short; Guinevere will return from her hunt of the Chaos Spawn soon. I’ll be called back to Camelot for the Dragon Tourney and then marry her.”
“Many lords have mistresses,” Lionor said.
“Guinevere won’t tolerate any rivals,” Arthur sighed. “If she found out about us, she’d kill us more surely than my father.”
“Then we keep it secret,” Lionor said.
“How?” Arthur asked.
“You are the Prince of Camelot and the champion of Viviane,” Lionor said. “You won’t always be in Camelot; there are your duties to attend to and battles to fight. There will be time for us.”
“You’ll come with me on my campaigns?” Arthur asked.
“Of course,” Lionor said. “Anything for you, Arthur. You have what it takes to win the game of the gods, you are brave, and loyal, and your men love you. There is no battle you cannot overcome.”